Shannon Dueck

More cottagers in the Whiteshell have been told to be ready for an evacuation order, as the result of an active wildfire burning near Ingolf, Ontario.

According to our province, an evacuation preparedness advisory has been issued for cottagers on the north side of West Hawk Lake, as well as Caddy Lake, Florence Lake, and Nora Lake. Residents in these areas are strongly encouraged to be ready for an evacuation, should conditions get worse. 

Several trails, water routes, portages, and backcountry campsites in Whiteshell Provincial Park are now closed until further notice.

A longtime resident, living near the Roseau River, says what he is witnessing this spring is unlike anything he has ever seen before.

Eighty-three-year-old Brian Grier says the water level along the Roseau River is the lowest he has ever seen it in spring. And for Grier, he has more than seven decades of springs to compare it to. Aside from spending eight years in Alberta, Grier has lived his entire life in the area. Grier is a Councillor for the Municipality of Emerson-Franklin. He also sits on the Seine Rat Roseau Watershed District board. 

A tornado near Kleefeld and wild temperature swings throughout southern Manitoba made for an interesting week of weather.

But the most dramatic weather event might have happened at Delta Beach, where extreme winds produced an ice surge that wreaked havoc on lakefront properties.

People born and raised at Delta Beach, north of Portage la Prairie, say the ice comes in like clockwork every year. Though loud and sometimes crashing like an earthquake, the ice forming a ridge along the shoreline is typically harmless.  

Conservative Ted Falk will serve another term as Member of Parliament for Provencher. 

Falk first became the Member of Parliament for Provencher back in 2013, when he won a by-election, taking 58 per cent of the votes. He then served in government for two years until the Conservatives were defeated by the Liberals in 2015. Though the Conservatives lost that election, Falk was victorious. He would go on to win subsequent elections in 2019 and 2021. With what appears to be another victory in 2025, this will be Falk's 5th term in office. 

If advance voting was any indication, it seems there is a lot more interest than usual in next week's federal election. 

Marie-France Kenny is Regional Media Advisor for Elections Canada. She says 7.3 million electors voted by advance voting nationwide. This represents an increase of 26 per cent compared to the last general election in 2021. 

Residents of southeastern Manitoba continue to donate more money to charity than either the provincial or national average. That is according to recently released data from Statistics Canada.

Statistics Canada has now released figures from the 2023 tax year. The median donation per tax filer in Canada that year was $390 and for Manitoba, it was $600. Both those averages are up from 2022. The median donation amount represents the middle point: half of the donors gave more than the median and the other half gave less.

Blair Mahaffy has been announced as the Green Party candidate for Provencher in next month's federal election.

Mahaffy is a lifelong resident of southeastern Manitoba. Born in Winnipeg, he spent summers in the Whiteshell, raised a family in Lorette, and now lives at West Hawk Lake. As a software developer, Mahaffy works with small, independent retailers across Canada. He also does some work as a horseback riding trail guide. 

Ted Falk is running again for the Conservative seat in Provencher. Not only is Falk personally looking to win a 5th consecutive election, but he is also hoping for a return to power, rather than serving in opposition as he has been doing for the last decade. 

Southern Manitoba could be experiencing double digit temperatures by the middle of next week. 

That is according to Scott Kehler, a meteorologist with Weatherlogics. He notes for the last while we have been stuck in a weather pattern that has had frequent high-pressure systems coming down from the Arctic, blasting us with shots of cold air.

"We warm up a little bit but then just as that warmup is starting to really feel like spring, another Arctic air mass comes down and hits us," explains Kehler. 

The Senior Climatologist with Environment Canada says the weather will be very lamb-like to start the month of March.